The Brockton Police Department is starting a stress unit to help its 174 police officers deal with the tragedies they encounter on the job, officials say. Brockton police Sgt. Richard Line...

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Brockton adds stress unit to help police officers

The Brockton Police Department is starting a stress unit to help its 174 police officers deal with the tragedies they encounter on the job, officials say.

Brockton police Sgt. Richard Linehan will direct the stress unit, an initiative created by Police Chief Robert Hayden.

One aim of the program is to get the police officer’s family involved to help them during difficult situations.

“Our goal is to have police officers not burying their feelings,” Linehan said. “We need to make sure there are coping mechanisms in place not only for the officer but the family of the officer as well.”

If a spouse does not know how to handle the emotion or lack of emotion a police officer may show after a shift, problems can escalate and the officer can become more isolated, Linehan said.

Brockton Mayor Bill Carpenter said starting a stress unit for the city’s officers is vital.

“The chief was amazed when he came here and saw we had nothing in place to help our officers,” said Carpenter, who appointed Hayden as police chief after his mayoral inauguration in January.

“This is a program that is essential for the psychological well-being of our first responders,” Carpenter said.

Stoughton Fire Chief Mark Dolloff has seen on-the-job stress get to some of his firefighters who respond to emergency calls.

“Our members see horrific things happen to the public – injuries, fatal accidents,” Dolloff said.

When that stress becomes too much, Stoughton is among several local fire departments who respond with a critical incident stress team, he said.

The team is comprised of other specially trained firefighters, chaplains, psychologists and social workers, he said.

“They can recognize a lot of signs and symptoms, and we try to get them help as soon as possible,” Dolloff said.

Job stress for firefighters could be one of several factors contributing to suicide, said the Rev. Jim Tilbe, chief chaplain of the Massachusetts Corps of Fire Chaplains.

“People have personal stress, personal problems, but certainly the stress of the job, these things that people take with them,” Tilbe said. “What they see on the job, those things stay with you forever.”

Tilbe, a Raynham resident who serves as fire chaplain in that town, said he did not know of statistics of suicides among firefighters.

But “they do occur much more often than they should,” said Tilbe, who has served as a fire chaplain since 1985.

Statewide, the Massachusetts Peer Support Network provides assistance for all emergency responders after a critical incident, including firefighters, police officers, paramedics and hospital workers, Tilbe said.

Critical incidents include a line of duty death, a colleague’s suicide, death or serious injury of a child, discharge of a firearm and mass casualty incidents, according to the network.

Tilbe said the network – made up of 17 teams statewide, including in Plymouth, Norfolk and Bristol counties – has a peer-driven model.

“The idea is that firefighters will do best talking to firefighters,” Tilbe said. “It’s very difficult to get an emergency responder to seek mental health help, but they’ll talk to a peer.”

The team can also arrange for an emergency responder to visit a residential treatment facility if that is needed, Tilbe said.

However, peer support “is underused because some don’t know it exists,” said Barry Geraghty, a retired Abington police officer who serves as deputy program director for the Plymouth County Critical Incident Stress Management Team.

The Massachusetts State Police has an employee assistance unit consisting of six troopers with specialized training to support troopers experiencing difficulties or problems, David Procopio, a state police spokesman, said in a recent email to The Enterprise.

The unit provides peer counseling, referrals and help to troopers and their families and is available 24 hours a day, Procopio said. It also assists troopers who have been involved in critical incidents.

Page 2 of 2 - “We believe we have a responsibility to ensure the safety of our employees, as well as to do what we can to further their psychological and physical wellness,” Procopio said.

The unit’s work is done confidentially – except in cases where failing to disclose information could result in danger to a person or the public, he said.

Beyond the employee assistance unit, barrack and unit supervisors “are required to remain alert for signs of unhealthy stress in troopers under their command, particularly after a traumatic incident,” Procopio said.

The department has also coordinated training with a former psychologist for the Los Angeles Police Department, Procopio said.

After difficult emergency calls, the first step for the Whitman Fire Department is to have firefighters sit around a table and talk about the incident, Whitman Fire Chief Timothy Grenno said.

“They debrief themselves as to the call and how it went, the good, the bad, and help themselves through it,” Grenno said.

If a firefighter needs more help, the department can call in the county’s critical incident stress team, Grenno said.

Raynham Fire Chief James Januse still remembers the gruesome scene when he responded to a fatal crash in Raynham three decades ago. Several young people had been ejected from a car, he said.

“It sticks in my head. It was all younger people. They were laying all over the street,” Januse said.

Back then, Januse said, firefighters weren’t offered the same assistance available today.

That professional support is vital in keeping his force healthy, Januse said.

Firefighters “think they can deal with it, but a lot of the guys that we talk to, including myself, (after you talk to someone) you feel much better,” Januse said.

Tilbe, the fire chaplain, agreed.

“We can’t take away what this person has seen or heard, but we can try to lessen the impact of it,” Tilbe said.